Monster Soup Review

Plubert from Pluto is not a very nice guy. Perhaps it's because he's a bit upset about Pluto's fall from planetary grace, or maybe because all of the other Plutonians always made fun of his ridiculous name. For whatever reason, Plubert is dead set on taking his frustrations out on the poor monster inhabitants of the Soup System by freezing them all in their own soup.

While the thin premise that acts as the basis for Monster Soup might not be winning any Nobel Peace Prizes in astrophysics, a few minutes with this game will have even the most hardcore physicist deeply invested in the well-being of the Soup System.

The game plays out as tiny soup monsters float up from the bottom of the screen. Once they reach the top they stick and become frozen into an ever expanding block of ice. As more and more monsters become stuck and frozen, a sheet of ice will begin to descend towards the bottom of the screen. Once the ice reaches the bottom of the screen, the game is over. The only way to keep these poor monsters from being frozen is to match them up. Touching one monster and then linking it to other similar monsters will remove those monsters from the screen and save them from a chilly fate. Linking five or more monsters at once will create special bonuses such as score multipliers, bombs to break up the descending ice, or bursts of sunshine to melt it. Matches of nine or more monsters create stronger versions of these bonuses.

The game is split up into levels, and each level is completed when the player has matched the requisite number of monsters. At the end of each level, the board is cleared of monsters and the score is tallied. The ice remains at the same position from level to level and the monsters become more numerous as the levels progress. This means things get crowded very quickly while the ice descends as more monsters rush to meet it. Some nimble fingers and quick matching are needed to clear each level.

Monster Soup is an entertaining and unique take on the traditional matching game. There's an organic feel to the game that keeps it fresh through multiple sessions. The fantastic music also adds to the atmosphere. Players won't regret giving this one a try.